Birthright and Bibi

By Jeremy Gillick While the economic crisis may spell Birthright's demise, New Voices editor Josh Nathan-Kazis argues that the famously free trip to Israel has already left its mark. In its December issue, Josh takes a look at Birthright's Hidden Cost. The issue also features an interview with Naomi Klein, the new darling of the left, who has been the subject of recent features in The New Yorker and in The New Republic, as well as stories on Manischewitz, the Jewish Defense League, and Jews at small, southern colleges, and a podcast on transgender issues in the Jewish community. In a provocative op-ed, Asher Berman makes the case for a strategic alliance between Iran and the United States. Read it all at New Voices.

Continue reading

New Voices goes Inside Chabad

Chabad, the ubiquitous Jewish movement best known among American Jews for its outreach on college campuses, is in many ways a mystery. Why, unlike most ultra-Orthodox, do the Lubavitch reach out to rather than reject secular Jews? What do they get when you put on t'fillin? Are they Zionist or anti-Zionist? What do they think of mainstream Jewish movements and what do those movements think of them? Do all Lubavitchers even share the same views on these issues? A new issue of New Voices, the national Jewish student magazine, addresses these questions, exploring the less known—and often troubling—aspects of Chabad. "As one JTA staffer noted," writes Ben Harris of the JTA, "it’s pretty 'ballsy' of NV to take on Lubavitch, though takedown is probably a more accurate description." Takedown or not, New Voices has done what no...

Continue reading